Smith and Mount Holyoke: Totally Confused!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Smith College
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<p>Well, I think the purpose of Praxis is to put an unpaid internship within reach of all/most students, even if it doesn’t cover the whole cost. It makes it less of a financial burden and gives more equal opportunity. And there are lots of ways to use it to make it work for you. When I was living in DC for the summer, I used my Praxis money to pay rent and then whatever was left over to live off of, supplementing it with steady babysitting income that I made on the side. I’ve known people that did Praxis and waitressed or had other part time jobs and I’ve known people that lived at home and just saved their whole Praxis. I’ve also known people to “front load”, i.e. try to complete their Praxis hours requirement as early in the summer as possible, so that they have the rest of the summer off to go home/make money/do whatever. </p>

<p>But that being said, the bottom line is, it’s nice to have the garuantee, but it’s also not going to provide your everything.</p>

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<p>Precisely - - Praxis funding puts a great internship w/i every students reach, meaning no one has to choose b/w going deep into debt or forgoing a great experience. It’s like the college is meeting you half-way, but not carrying you . . . exactly the sort of offer I’d make to my own D (like your employer MATCHING your charitable contirbutions).</p>

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<p>We will be visiting Smith and Mt Holyoke in October. D will spend a night at each, also “shadow-day” at MHC.</p>

<p>Can you really get a flavor of what they are truly like and of the difference between the two, in that amount of time? </p>

<p>Do girls bad-mouth the “other school” (see that on this forum quite a bit, and I don’t know why, since no one has ever attended both – and they both seem wonderful). Is it possible to like them both equally?</p>

<p>Is there a “type” that prefers one or the other? They both have so much to offer, that other than the town-thing, they both seem to provide a comprehensive experience.</p>

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<p>In my experience, as well as the experiences of other Smithies I know, one day will be enough to tell between Smith and Moho. They all felt very different to everyone I know who visited both, and almost everyone really liked one much more than the other.</p>

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<p>I agree with Teenage_cliche. You may like both, although you’ll probably prefer one over the other after the visits. I advise sitting in on at least one class at each and choosing a discussion-based course over one that depends on lectures.</p>

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<p>I think we try to keep the tone of the discussion on here positive and to not “bad mouth” other schools, particularly other women’s colleges (we’re all sisters together, after all). </p>

<p>It’s certainly possible to like them both equally, but in my experience, people who visit both tend to have strong reactions to one or the other. It’s quite common for Smithies to say, when discussing their decision, that they knew after one visit that Smith just “felt right”, I assume it’s the same for Moho. You’re right, they both have a great deal to offer, and no, there’s not one defined type who finds one better than the other. You’ll just have to visit and see what your D thinks about it. Can’t really go wrong either way.</p>

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<p>In my experience, no one really badmouths Mount Holyoke at Smith. There’s a joke that says, “What do a Mount Holyoke student and a Smith student have in common? They both got into Mount Holyoke,” but that’s nothing original among colleges, and Smithies don’t seem to think any less of their Mount Holyoke counterparts. In fact, since their campus is quite a distance from Northampton when compared with Amherst/UMass/Hampshire, it’s quite easy to forget that MoHo exists unless one is taking a class there or has friends there.</p>

<p>You can definitely get a flavor for what each school is like in that time, and odds are your daughter won’t be waffling between the two. I spent time at both Smith and Mount Holyoke (as well as about five other schools) as a junior on my college visits and found that Smith “clicked” while Mount Holyoke, to that point my favorite school and in a rural area, which I like, was no longer on my list. It took only a few hours to be sure of this, and I haven’t yet had any cause to revise that assessment. </p>

<p>They are both great schools, though, and if your daughter ends up at one of them, I know she will have a great experience and come away with an excellent education.</p>

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<p>I think visiting them both at the same time of year is very helpful - we did MHC in the summer and Smith in the fall and I think the less active campus at MHC put it at a disadvantage. My d best friend from HS goes to MHC my d to Smith and both are happy with there choices and each seems to fit them.</p>

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<p>I agree about time of year. My son visited 5 midwestern colleges on a trip, but Carleton and Macalester he liked the least. We think it was primarily because the 2 schools were on break. It’s just a shame that high school breaks and college breaks occur over the same 2 week period, so a trip during school break is bound to include one that is on break – a bummer given the travel costs.</p>

<p>I miss-used my tech-talk. It is not This forum specifically at all, but perusing the entire CC Smith and Mt H sections, that I see some low-level-bashing. Certainly not exclusive to these schools. I attribute it to people’s need to say the other guy is not as good, like sports rivalries. My son heard this type of thing from students during his overnights at really very comparable midwestern colleges.</p>

<p>She is looking at economics and dance/ballet, and I am hoping that she will be able to tell which is “right” for her, given the one-day-format.</p>

<p>In any case, I am sure looking forward to visiting these two incredible campuses!</p>

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<p>At this Prospie weekend, we got talking with the Smith student class officers out in the parking lot and they could not have been more complementary toward MoHo. As has been stated, so many get accepted to both, I think it results in mutual respect mixed with a bit of school pride. “Smith just worked for me better” was about the toughest remark I heard. </p>

<p>Moreover, my intern this summer is from MoHo and has now made friends from both schools. While interning, and presumably when out in “the real world”, they find they have way more in common than not. So, not a bad network to join regardless of which institution your D finds “works best for her”. </p>

<p>We just let her walk both campuses ALONE to get a feel for what was best for her --but she is also glad a close friend will be going to MoHo so she’ll get to develop friendships there as well!</p>

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<p>1bie, the ballet at Smith was the second-best D found after Barnard and she vastly preferred Smith for other reasons. Was a very serious ballet dancer K-12. The Econ department at Smith is terrific; though she wasn’t an Econ major, D starts a PhD/Econ program (next week!) and her Smith Econ profs were tremendous assets in the application process.</p>

<p>It’s true that the students of the top women’s colleges have more in common than not. D’s post-college roommate was from Wellesley. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>As for the Smith vs. MHC thing, we can spar about academics but the biggest difference is location. It was just too pastoral (rural, bucolic) for D.</p>

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<p>Btw, I strongly agree about the disadvantages of visiting schools when not in session. We visited Georgetown twice, about five days apart, completely different feel.</p>

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<p>I completely agree with visiting both in the same period of time. I visited MHC and Smith on the same day in my junior year. MoHo had been one of my top choices before the visit (along with Wellesley), and my visit convinced me to put it off the list entirely. (I just didn’t click with the campus at all.) On the other hand, I hadn’t wanted to visit Smith at all, and was only convinced by my mother pointing out that we were going to be in NoHo to visit my cousin anyways, might as well kill a few hours looking at the college. It immediately jumped to the top of my list and now I’m a proud Smithie! I was only on each campus for a total of about 2 hours each that visit, and I immediately knew which one I preferred. (This held true for the MoHos and Smithies I talked to, as well.)</p>

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<p>I call it the “audible click” phenomenon.</p>

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<p>TO: TheDad:<br>
RE: “the ballet at Smith was the second-best D found after Barnard and she vastly preferred Smith for other reasons.”</p>

<p>Could you elaborate on those reasons please?</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

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<p>Well, I’m probably recycling my posts from the past, but it’s a new year, so:</p>

<p>Smith had a sense of community she really liked; Barnard empties out to NYC on the weekends, Smith, while having NoHo, is more self-contained (balanced). This from a big-city kid who thought she wanted a big-city college at the start of the process.</p>

<p>She looked at Barnard in terms of Barnard; she found Columbia to be a turnoff, not a positive. Every student she spoke to at Columbia talked about NYC, not classes or professors or anything of the on-campus intellectual life. In contrast, it’s hard to get Smithies to shut up about all that stuff.</p>

<p>The housing at Barnard was the second-worst of any that she saw at various colleges, beating out only American. Figured that in NYC you’re grateful to have any housing. She <em>loved</em> the Smith “House” system before going to Smith and has stuck with that opinion to the present day.</p>

<p>She liked the Smith extracurricular Music (orchestra in her case) program a lot. Barnard, not so much, and a lot was co-mingled with Columbia. Note: Columbia had been her #1 choice on paper and after visiting she declined to even apply. After visiting, Smith went from a “Maybe” to “Top Two”.</p>

<p>D felt very comfortable socially at Smith, the moderate kid in the liberal environment. Took one visit to confirm that she wasn’t going to be recruited into the lesbian conspiracy if her inclinations weren’t in that direction. (In four years, never had any untoward advances and by my count roughly half of her best friends are gay.)</p>

<p>The combination of year-away programs, internships, and research opportunities at Smith blew her away. (Ultimately she split her junior year between Washington, DC and Budapest.)</p>

<p>Early reads on the Government department were extremely positive. (Math crystallized after she had already committed to Smith and Econ didn’t crystallize as a possibility until sophomore year.)</p>

<p>Off the top of my head… More may occur to me later.</p>